Another Cheap Graphic Display

The NewHaven’s NHD-C12832 graphic display is a 128 x 32 pixels display with an SPI interface but what makes it interesting is the cost of it. It just cost 11$ and is currently one of the cheapest display available with the above mentioned resolution. The LCD operates from 2.6V to 3.3V. Therefore to solve the problem of the logic levels, the breakout board was provided with a 3.3V 150mA LDO regulator along with a level shifter (74VHC541) to convert the logic signals to a operating voltage so as to make it compatible with 5V logic levels.

The backlit can be controlled with the help of Pulse Modulating Techniques which is used in almost all cases to generate analog voltages. The display which runs on a SPI based controller draws around 0.45mA of maximum current. Also, the backlit is also connected to a regulator via a MOSFET which is acting as a switch. GIMP was used to convert the image into a black and white which was further exported to a hex format and was then included as an header file with the arduino.